Just played Odyssey on the Steam Deck...

It sure does. Did the latest expedition on it. In fact, the loading screen (flying in space through the galaxy) is taking less time on the Deck than my laptop!? In other words, it loads faster.

I actually had to install nms thru GoG since that's where i pre-ordered from. I had to do this by downloading the setup, add this to steam as a non-steam game run with compatibility enabled. This installs GoG galaxy and then begins installing the game thru that launcher. But you dont need to run the launcher to run the game so i just altered the target for my now added Setup to point to NMS's exe in the new proton prefix. Then i added box art and poster art and such for NMS so it looked right in steam.

However, the install failed during finalization steps. Though, it seems like the game runs fine anyway.

I'm sure most will just have the steam version and install that way no problem.

But i'll also be installing the epic launcher for tiny tina soon as well, and figured i'd note here (since many players here have free epic accounts) that such launchers dont have much of a problem with installing thru steam. However, you need to be in desktop mode to do these things the first time. And desktop mode is required for any kind of launcher that opens multiple windows or uses a weird API for menus that treats them as a separate window effectively as the "game mode" steam (default ui) doesn't seem to like such things, as it will scale the screen to the main window and not handle any additional windows. But with GoG that's not a deal breaker as there is no req to run the gog galaxy to play. I'm not so sure how the epic launcher will go (or even the heroic launcher). fingers crossed.
 
Yes, NMS does run very well on it.

It's a game I'll probably always have installed on my Deck because of both performance and how how well-suited to short, impromptu, play sessions the gameplay in NMS is.
 
Yes, NMS does run very well on it.

It's a game I'll probably always have installed on my Deck because of both performance and how how well-suited to short, impromptu, play sessions the gameplay in NMS is.

Though, with NMS it's probably really smart to familiarize yourself with the gamepad template + the control settings in game asap. I died like 5 times on immediate game start because I couldn't find the button that opens up the menu to re-charge my hazardous environment protection and i kept getting spawned on radioactive and super cold worlds.

Also, it's kinda annoying that the default templates for most games dont make use of the backside buttons by your pinky and ring fingers, and since the template doesn't assign them any kind of key press or gamepad button, the in-game settings can't see their presses either. So you have to adjust the template before diving in to a game.

I'm finding myself adjusting the gamepad template a lot to deal with trackpad redundancy as often they'll just be mapped to mouse but so may one of the analog sticks.. or one may be mapped as a d-pad but so is the d-pad.

I still haven't setup elite dangerous's template in a way that i'm really happy with. Seems like that's going to take quite a long time since there is no preset for something like the controller that the deck is within elite and the external steam template can only do so much.
 
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True, I did have to edit the mappings a bit to get them how I like. The defaults left out a few necessary commands. I think I couldn't even bring up the quick menu while flying with the default maps.

But as someone who has used a Steam Controller for years, and who is rarely satisfied with the default controller layout provided in any game, I have come to know my way around the Steam Input mappings like the back of my hand. Poking around in Steam's controller mappings is usually something I'm doing in the first 5 minutes of launching a new game.

I really could gush for days about how well and intricate Steam's controller mapping solution is. For anything, not just the Deck or Steam Controller... On my desktop PC my main flight control is a PS5 Dualsense in which I have configured the touchpad to bring up menus for throttle selections or SLF commands, and have the gyro set for headlook... And anytime the mouse cursor is present on screen (such as while looking at a station service menu) the touchpad just becomes a mousepad.. All of which pretty seamlessly transferred to the Deck's layout.
 
I actually had to install nms thru GoG since that's where i pre-ordered from. I had to do this by downloading the setup, add this to steam as a non-steam game run with compatibility enabled. This installs GoG galaxy and then begins installing the game thru that launcher. But you dont need to run the launcher to run the game so i just altered the target for my now added Setup to point to NMS's exe in the new proton prefix. Then i added box art and poster art and such for NMS so it looked right in steam.
Dang. That's a lot of work.
However, the install failed during finalization steps. Though, it seems like the game runs fine anyway.

I'm sure most will just have the steam version and install that way no problem.
Yeah. Put it this way, even though a lot of Windows programs and games play on the Steam Deck, if it's not on Steam, it's a lot more work and not always successful. I've tried some apps with varied results. It's not a Windows machine after all. I did see a video once how to do it through Steam Other-app install, but only tried one app and it didn't work.

But i'll also be installing the epic launcher for tiny tina soon as well, and figured i'd note here (since many players here have free epic accounts) that such launchers dont have much of a problem with installing thru steam. However, you need to be in desktop mode to do these things the first time. And desktop mode is required for any kind of launcher that opens multiple windows or uses a weird API for menus that treats them as a separate window effectively as the "game mode" steam (default ui) doesn't seem to like such things, as it will scale the screen to the main window and not handle any additional windows. But with GoG that's not a deal breaker as there is no req to run the gog galaxy to play. I'm not so sure how the epic launcher will go (or even the heroic launcher). fingers crossed.
I think there's an Epic app that can be installed through "Discover", i.e. an Arch Linux app. Check it out and see if that's an option.

Personally, I got Tiny Tina on Steam, and it does play really well. Level 27 right now. Just be warned, I've had a few crashes in the game, but it's not restricted to Steam Deck. I've had crashes on my Windows Laptop and my kids have had it too, so there are some issues with the game. Someone recommended change the options to DirectX 11 instead of 12, and it seems to help a bit.
 
Does Steam Deck support gyroscopic headlook like we have on PS4? What about the Steam Controller on a regular PC? Man I miss that feature!
 
Yeah, you can set the Deck, Steam Controller, PS4 Dualshock, or PS5 Dualsense (or any other controller with gyro capability that I forgot) to do headlook.
 
I've been asking for years now how to do this on a regular PC, but nobody ever answers me ☹️
For example, I set the Gyro to control the mouse and set the Gyro Activation button to Left Pad Click and make it a Toggle activation:

1659616239078.png


Then for the Left Touchpad I have it set to emulate a press of the Right ALT key (which in Elite is to activate mouselook and is set to be a toggle action):

1659616309238.png


Setting it up that way makes it so that when I press down on the left side of the touchpad it turns on the Gyro and presses the right ALT key. Pressing it again turns the Gyro off and presses the ALT key again.

So then when I'm in game I press down on the left side of the touchpad and then I can look around. When I get tired of looking around I just press down on the left side of the touchpad again.
 
testing Odyssey (4.0) vs horizon (3.8) ...
4.0 uses at minimum 30% more gpu all the time to render the same exact scene as 3.8

cpu was not very different. 4.0 gpu and to some extent cpu spikes significantly higher when an object like a station or planet enters your view compared to 3.8, 3.8 hardly cares.

4.0 fluctuated over a wider range of gpu usage just rotating around than 3.8 in the same place.

this has very obvious consequences to not just battery, but quality as well. since, depending on throttling settings in steam, you will reach 100% gpu in 4.0 far more frequently than you would in 3.8. forcing you to reduce quality or remove your throttling or both.


on the upside, the deck did impress with 4.0. i did not have to use fsr just the maintain 45fps (my display vsync) in empty space. though i came out of that test with a new appreciation for how poorly 4.0 is written. 30% for the same scene, wth.
 
For the deck is it better to get EDO direct from frontier and use their launcher or is steam the better option?
 
For the deck is it better to get EDO direct from frontier and use their launcher or is steam the better option?
You can certainly play it on the Steam Deck with a Frontier copy, but it'll be a lot less fiddly if you buy it on Steam for that explicit purpose. I personally don't use Steam but believe this is the generally agreed upon answer to such questions.
 
You can certainly play it on the Steam Deck with a Frontier copy, but it'll be a lot less fiddly if you buy it on Steam for that explicit purpose. I personally don't use Steam but believe this is the generally agreed upon answer to such questions.
This is pretty much what I'm hearing from other places too. Wanted to gather enough opinions before making my decision. Thank you.
 
Here is a Ground Combat Zone video to check out on YouTube. A link per the Forum
didn't like a media insert. Maybe too big or too long at 24 min.

It starts slow at first then the player gets into more agressive combat later.
EDO on Steam Deck

Seems pretty new but info is starting to show up on Google for controller/graphic settings,
updating Proton and installing ED/EDO from Frontier having it work smoothly with Steam.

Now if someone can do a video on stealing a Power Regulator...
 
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I just wanted to share the idea of setting up the FSS to use the gyro.

I set mine up this way yesterday and played around a bit and it feels pretty cool to move the Deck around while using the FSS, like you're looking through the viewfinder of an instrument.

It felt like a similar experience to using an app which I have on my phone that uses the gyros in the phone to show on the screen what stars and planets are visible in the sky where the phone is pointing.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, and not sure why it took me so long to think about setting it up this way. So I wanted to share for anyone else who hadn't thought of it.
 
I just wanted to share the idea of setting up the FSS to use the gyro.

I set mine up this way yesterday and played around a bit and it feels pretty cool to move the Deck around while using the FSS, like you're looking through the viewfinder of an instrument.

It felt like a similar experience to using an app which I have on my phone that uses the gyros in the phone to show on the screen what stars and planets are visible in the sky where the phone is pointing.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, and not sure why it took me so long to think about setting it up this way. So I wanted to share for anyone else who hadn't thought of it.
I haven't tried it yet, mostly because I thought the experience wouldn't be great, but you convinced me otherwise. Cool stuff.
 
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